Broccoli with Walnut-Garlic Browned Butter Sauce

10 03 2010
This is the final recipe to be posted from the first cooking class. I taught the students about browning butter to make a rich and simple sauce for steamed broccoli. This would be good on asparagus, cauliflower and broccoli rabe as well.

1/3 cup butter

5 large garlic cloves, peeled and very thinly sliced

1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

1 head broccoli, cut into florets

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Heat the butter in a small skillet until the foam subsides. Add in the garlic slices and saute until garlic begins to brown. Then add in the chopped walnuts and brown them as well. The butter should begin to brown throughout this process.  Season with salt and pepper.

Steam the broccoli and serve topped with the galicky-nutty butter.


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Categories : Vegetable side dish

Variation to the Maple-Ginger Roasted Vegetables

25 02 2010

Another variation to the Maple-Roasted Vegetable recipe is to  omit the pecans, ginger, syrup and nutmeg and toss the vegetables with olive oil, 1 1/2 tsp smoked paprika, 1 1/2 tsp cumin, 1/2 tsp coriander and 1/4 tsp cayenne. Roast for 55 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until tender and browned. Toss the roasted vegetables with some feta cheese and 1 cup of pomegranate seeds. Sound pretty huh?


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Categories : Vegetable side dish

Fig and Almond Bread Stuffing with Fennel

25 02 2010
I keep finding recipes that I used at Thanksgiving time. I thought I could wait to post this until closer to Thanksgiving, but then I thought I might lose it. Also, why is it that we all love a good stuffing, but we only eat it at Thanksgiving time? And actually it is technically not a stuffing, but a dressing, since I am not actually stuffing anything.  So here is a vegetarian stuffing that you might enjoy even in these colder months for something hearty. You could serve this with a side vegetable and a salad and be perfectly satisfied. I just love the hint of fennel in this stuffing, a beautiful mild licorice flavor. Read the rest of this entry »

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Maple-Ginger Roasted Vegetables with Pecans

23 02 2010
I just found this recipe which I made at Thanksgiving for a vegetable side dish. It was really delicious and is perfect for a wintertime roasted vegetable dish. I love roasted vegetables. Somehow roasting brings out the earthy characteristic of root vegetables and caramelizes them beautifully. If you prefer, you could roast the same vegetables with fresh sage, thyme and rosemary tossed with olive oil instead of the pecans, ginger and syrup. Read the rest of this entry »

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Baked Portobello Mushrooms with blue cheese, pecan crumbs and sage and smoked paprika aioli

21 02 2010

These mushrooms make a good side dish or main course with a salad or roasted beets  on the side. An aioli is a garlicky mayonnaise. This one is reddish in color due to the paprika. Use the leftover aioli to make a yummy tuna or salmon salad sandwich.

4 cloves garlic

1 egg

1 egg yolk

1 tsp Dijon mustard

9 oz olive oil

1 tsp smoked paprika

salt and pepper to taste

lemon juice to taste

½ lb butter

1 bunch sage leaves

¼ cup pecans

1 slice whole wheat bread

4 large Portobello mushrooms

2 oz. Blue cheese Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Main Dish, Vegetable side dish

Braised Kale with Sweet Potatoes

17 02 2010

If you enjoy kale and sweet potatoes, you will love this recipe. I never understood the American obsession with sweetening sweet potatoes. They are already beautifully sweet, just as God made them . This recipe calls for a little orange juice which does sweeeten a little bit but mostly adds a lovely depth to the flavors. This dish can be eaten as a side dish or as a main course with a side salad.

2 large sweet potatoes, scrubbed

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 red bell pepper, diced

½ onion, diced

1 to 2 jalapeno peppers, minced

2 pounds kale, washed, tough ribs removed, leaves stacked and coarsely chopped

1/3 cup vegetable stock

1 orange

1 to 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

2 medium tomatoes

salt and freshly ground pepper to taste Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Main Dish, Vegetable side dish

Armenian Green Beans

15 02 2010

So far, my youngest, Gaelen used to be quite picky and I could only convince him to eat broccoli, green beans and salad as his greens. This is one of his favorite green bean recipes.

2 tbsp vegetable oil

2 cups chopped onions

3 cups green beans, whole or cut in half

4 medium fresh tomatoes, chopped or 1 ½ cups undrained canned tomatoes, crushed

3 tbsp lemon juice

1/8 tsp dried thyme

¼ tsp dried marjoram

¼ tsp dried basil

salt and black pepper to taste Read the rest of this entry »


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Balsamic Glazed Beets and Greens

14 02 2010

I received some beets this week from my organic vegetable delivery and made this yummy side dish. I particularly like golden beets done this way but you find them more in the late summer at the farmers markets.  My kids even liked this recipe, well actually one of them did. The other one is not crazy about beets, but he is expanding his vegetable repertoire slowly.

1 medium red onion, cut into ¼ inch crescents

4 to 5 fresh beets with tops, roots trimmed and cut into 4 to 6 wedges, greens chopped

3 tbsp balsamic vinegar

2 tbsp unsalted butter or olive oil

2 sprigs fresh tarragon, leaves minced

coarse sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper Read the rest of this entry »


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Greek Style Green Beans

13 01 2010

Serves 4

This is a slow cooking method for green beans. They come out brown and caramelized and slightly shriveled. They may not look pretty but they taste great, saturated with flavor. Read the rest of this entry »


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Spinach Sauteed with Olive Oil and Garlic

12 01 2010

Leave it to Marcella Hazan, the guru of Italian cooking, to turn a simple recipe into a gourmet delight. This spinach is so full of flavor and great as a side vegetable dish. Tonight I made it with a combination of spinach and beet greens. This is really good with any greens but if using tougher greens like kale, you may want to parboil it first.

2 pounds fresh spinach

Sea salt

2 large cloves garlic, peeled

4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Discard the hard end of the stems of the spinach or if tough, remove the leaves from the entire stem. Rinse the spinach leaves in several changes of cold water and drain. Cook the spinach leaves in a covered pan with 1 tbsp salt.  Cook until tender. Drain well but do not squeeze.

Put the garlic and olive oil in a skillet, turn the heat to medium high and when the garlic becomes a light nut-brown color, remove from the pan. Add the spinach and toss in the garlic flavored oil. Taste to adjust seasoning for salt. Transfer to a warmed platter and serve at once.


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Categories : Greens, Italian, Vegetable side dish

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